My Dividend Path To Financial Independence

Roughly a year ago, I planted the seeds of my "dividend tree," meaning my stock portfolio, with the ultimate goal of reaching financial independence by the age of 50. I was inspired by other authors, such as Jason Fieber, and have now decided to publish my progress, my reasoning, and my decision-making process here. My goal is to critically discuss my decisions and benefit from the mutual exchange.
Having made some classic mistakes in the very beginning, such as buying when stocks were at all-time highs (e.g., BASF above 84 EUR) and too frequently (i.e., wasting fees), I have now found a new, reliable and priceless broker in degiro, which I can fully recommend. Now that fees, especially for US stocks, are a non-issue, I have started to initiate very tiny positions in high-yielding stocks such as Teekay Tankers (NYSE: TNK) or Omega Healthcare Investors (NYSE: OHI). Previously, I was fully focused on large, stable companies such as Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), McDonald's (NYSE: MCD), Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), and Philip Morris (NYSE: PM).
As of June 17, my portfolio looks as follows. All values in USD, converted from EUR and other foreign currencies based on Google Finance current exchange rates):


So far, overall performance is very much flat (around + $100). Overall dividend income in 2016 comes in at $233, which looks as follows:

While May is boosted by yearly dividend payouts of German companies BASF and Drillisch, I am very satisfied with... Read more